Retro: Yuma, AZ, September 11, 1967

[crainbebo]

Title says all.
LISTINGS RUN FROM 5AM-1AM
Color programs are idenfied by the C, Black and white programs are idenified by the B&W

Channels: 11 KIVA (NBC), (ABC), 13 KBLU (CBS), (ABC)

11 KIVA
8AM: Today C
10AM: Linus B&W
10:30: Concentration B&W
11AM: Personality C
11:30: Hollywood Squares C
Noon: Jeopardy! C
12:30: Eye Guess C
1PM: Let's Make a Deal B&W
1:25: News C
1:30: Afternoon Report B&W
2PM: The Doctors C
2:25: News B&W
2:30: Another World C
3PM: You Don't Say! B&W
3:30: Dream Girl '67 B&W
3:54: Woman's Touch
4PM: General Hospital B&W
4:30: Dark Shadows B&W
5PM: S.S. KIVA (children's show aired on KIVA from the late 50s to the late 60s) B&W
5:30: The Fugitive B&W
6:30: Peter Jennings (RIP) C
7PM: Valley News B&W
7:15: Sportscope B&W
7:30: The Monkees C
8PM: Huntley-Brinkley Report B&W
9PM: Route 66 B&W (rerun)
10PM: Road West C
11PM: Run for Your Life C
Midnight: Valley Final B&W
12:30: Sign off

13 KBLU
6:30: Joseph Benti C
6:55: Ag Report B&W
7AM: Captain Kangaroo B&W
8AM: Candid Camera B&W
8:30: Beverly Hillibillies B&W
9AM: Andy of Mayberry B&W
9:30: Dick Van Dyke B&W
10AM: Love of Life C
10:25 News B&W
10:30: Search for Tomorrow C
10:45: Guiding Light
11AM: Gale Storm B&W
11:30: As The World Turns C
Noon: Password C
12:30: House Party C
1PM: To Tell The Truth C
1:25: News B&W
1:30: Edge of Night C
2PM: Secret Storm C
2:30: Newlywed Game B&W
3PM: Dating Game C
3:30: Everybody's Talking B&W
4PM: Merv Griffin B&W
5:30: Walter Cronkite C
6PM: Big News B&W
6:30: Lucy Show C
7PM: Andy Griffith C
7:30: Family Affair B&W
8PM: Carol Burnett C
9PM: Gunsmoke C
10PM: Peyton Place C
10:30: Joey Bishop C (continues to maybe 1AM)
1AM?: Sign off

-crainbebo

 

[Stanislav]

Boy, with cramming all those ABC shows into the schedule, they sure didn't have to fill a lot of air time with local/syndie stuff, huh? Looks like each station had less than 2 hours of non-network stuff.

But the BIG question is: why would KIVA not carry Carson? KBLU had Joey Bishop -- this must have been one of the few markets (maybe even the only one?) in which Joey's show ran unopposed by Johnny.

 

[crainbebo]

Also, another thing that is very weird- Snap Judgment, a late 60s NBC show, was not aired that day on KIVA, and replaced by Linus.

-crainbebo

 

[oldiesfan6479]

But the BIG question is: why would KIVA not carry Carson? KBLU had Joey Bishop -- this must have been
one of the few markets (maybe even the only one?) in which Joey's show ran unopposed by Johnny.

Perhaps since it would have been on so late (12:30am)?

KBLU-TV had either an OAI pickup of, or a microwave link from, KOOL-TV Phoenix
for their primary CBS affiliation, and one or the other from KTVK Phoenix for at
least Bishop--I'm not sure if the out-of-pattern ABC stuff was recorded off of
KTVK or shipped to KBLU on film or tape.

OTOH, the KIVA-TV NBC feed was from Burbank, not New York (neither directly nor
via KTAR-TV Phoenix), hence the Pacific Time plus one hour airings of many NBC shows.
I've seen postings elsewhere which claimed KIVA had a Telco line from El Lay, and
others that said it was a microwave link, with at least one very long hop. At that
time KIVA probably had very little VTR capability.

 

[Stanislav]

Perhaps since it would have been on so late (12:30am)?

OTOH, the KIVA-TV NBC feed was from Burbank, not New York (neither directly nor
via KTAR-TV Phoenix), hence the Pacific Time plus one hour airings of many NBC shows.

But as I recall from one of my TDITVH items, even back then wasn't a big hunk, if not the majority, of their viewing audience actually on the California side of the border? So, those times would apply in Yuma proper, but many of the viewers would still get Johnny at 11:30 if they carried it in pattern.

Besides, by 1967, I'd find it hard to believe that even a small-market station like that didn't have at least one VTR -- if the timing was a problem, couldn't they have run Carson on a one-day delay but at an earlier clock time? I know, some of the monologue may then be dated (since Johnny often referred to that day's news events), but given the popularity of the show, if I were a viewer in Yuma back then, I would have felt that slightly stale Johnny was better than no Johnny at all.

Just to complicate matters, was Arizona on year-round standard time back then, and did that mean the whole market would have been in sync as regards clock time for at least half the year?

 

[Stanislav]

BTW, what is the source for the listings, craigbebo? What edition (if any) of TVG were the Yuma/El Centro stations historically listed in, given the remoteness of the market? Were they just lumped into a general Arizona edition or what?

 

[cowboybud]

Do you have the listings for September 12, 1967 (my birthdate)?

 

[oldiesfan6479]

But as I recall from one of my TDITVH items, even back then wasn't a big hunk, if not the majority, of their viewing audience actually on the California side of the border? So, those times would apply in Yuma proper, but many of the viewers would still get Johnny at 11:30 if they carried it in pattern.

I suppose the answer was/is--which "metro" is bigger, Yuma or El Centro?

Just to complicate matters, was Arizona on year-round standard time back then......?

AZ observed DST in 1967, the only year since WWII "War Time" (which had its
own oddities).

Yeah, those 8:42pm MDT sunsets in Phoenix in late June really ticked off a few
folks, not to mention the drive-in theater lobby. Mommy couldn't get little Billy
to go to bed, because "it didn't get dark until 10:00" (yeah, right).

(sarcasm on) Oh, and that "extra hour" of sunlight we got. (sarcasm off)


BTW, I've seen these listings on http://www.broadcasting101.ws.

 

[Bluenoser]

What edition (if any) of TVG were the Yuma/El Centro stations historically listed in, given the remoteness of the market? Were they just lumped into a general Arizona edition or what?

I know from TVGs in my own collection that Yuma-El Centro was listed in the Phoenix edition in later years, but I can't say for sure what was done earlier than that...I've heard rumors of a Yuma edition, but don't know more than that...

 

[bpatrick]

If Joey Bishop came on at 10:30, then he
went off at midnight. So if Johnny came on
at 11:30, they'd be against each other for
only a half-hour; I'd think Joey would have
the advantage with the earlier start time.

I don't ever recall "The Doctors" being 25
minutes (or for that matter, any other NBC
soap), and by that time "Let's Make A Deal"
had expanded from 25 minutes to 30. And
what is this "Afternoon Report" at 1:30 on
KIVA?

As for the TV Guide question, I never remember
seeing Yuma/El Centro in any edition until the
later days of the old-style TV Guide, when it
was in the Phoenix edition (didn't the Phoenix
and Tucson editions merge?).

 

[oldiesfan6479]

If Joey Bishop came on at 10:30, then he
went off at midnight. So if Johnny came on
at 11:30, they'd be against each other for
only a half-hour; I'd think Joey would have
the advantage with the earlier start time.

Carson would have aired on KIVA at 12:30am MT in the summer of 1967
and in all winter periods. Other summers before and after would indeed
have been at 11:30pm MST/PDT.

As for the TV Guide question, I never remember
seeing Yuma/El Centro in any edition until the
later days of the old-style TV Guide, when it
was in the Phoenix edition (didn't the Phoenix
and Tucson editions merge?).

The Arizona edition was split into separate PHX and TUS editions
sometime in the early 1960s. I don't recall YUM being in the earlier
combo or the stand-alone TUS, at some point YUM started appearing
in the PHX edition, but that may not have been until the 70s or 80s.

Does anyone remember the :20 TV Guide film spots that used to air
on local stations, topicalized with whatever article(s) they wanted
to plug? I think it was a trade-out deal with the station, one perk
being the station higher-ups (GM, dept. heads, the Herb Tarleks)
got a free TV Guide each week.

 

[Stanislav]

As for the TV Guide question, I never remember
seeing Yuma/El Centro in any edition until the
later days of the old-style TV Guide, when it
was in the Phoenix edition (didn't the Phoenix
and Tucson editions merge?).

The Arizona edition was split into separate PHX and TUS editions
sometime in the early 1960s. I don't recall YUM being in the earlier
combo or the stand-alone TUS, at some point YUM started appearing
in the PHX edition, but that may not have been until the 70s or 80s.

I recall from kibitzing with other TV geeks over the years about how there were a handful of stations and small markets that because of their remoteness were never listed in TVG at all, or at least weren't listed during a large portion of TVG history. But that sounds like a topic for another thread entirely (q.v.).

 

[crainbebo]

If Joey Bishop came on at 10:30, then he
went off at midnight. So if Johnny came on
at 11:30, they'd be against each other for
only a half-hour; I'd think Joey would have
the advantage with the earlier start time.

I don't ever recall "The Doctors" being 25
minutes (or for that matter, any other NBC
soap), and by that time "Let's Make A Deal"
had expanded from 25 minutes to 30. And
what is this "Afternoon Report" at 1:30 on
KIVA?

As for the TV Guide question, I never remember
seeing Yuma/El Centro in any edition until the
later days of the old-style TV Guide, when it
was in the Phoenix edition (didn't the Phoenix
and Tucson editions merge?).

I think that at 1:25, KIVA aired an NBC News update, then the "Afternoon Report" at 1:30, which was probably a news program.

-crainbebo

 

[JayElDee]

By an amazing coincidence, I was the technical director/operator at KIVA on the night of the listing you posted. To answer some of the specifics:

1. We did, in fact, get our net feeds by microwave. We had off-air receivers on Santiago Peak in Orange County that then hopped to El Centro. From there, we had a single channel microwave to the Yuma studio that went to Black Mountain, then back down to Yuma. It covered a lots of sandy area at a fairly low angle, so we had a lot of multi-path fading in the evenings during the summer. Even as late as September, I probably had a "please stand by" slide in the film chain. KIVA was a dual ABC-NBC affiliate. We accomplished switching the net signal by means of a UHF radio system that had an now-old-fashioned dial in the control room, and a receiver with probably a large stepping relay in El Centro. You'd hold down the transmit button, dial 7, the El Centro switcher would togle over to ABC, and away you'd go. One of our on-going challenges was that the two networks didn't use exactly the same timing for their show ends, so when going from one to the other we'd sometimes have more commercials on the log than the break permitted. I worked weekends once in a while at KYUM radio, which was a NBC station. We got the old Monitor program over there by ATT long lines.

2. The tower was in California, still using the original DuMont transmitter, but the studios were in Yuma. As indicated, we used California time. The primary reason we signed off at midnight was that money was tight, there wasn't much in the way of local advertising after 11, and they'd have had to pay me overtime to stay later.

3. Yeah, we were short on VTRs. We had Ampex 1000 serial number (I believe) 3. It was a machine that originally got fire-damaged at NBC. Running two VTR's in one break meant that I had to roll in something from the film chain, dash back to the VTR, change the tape, then run back to the console in time to roll it and cut to it. Things got pretty exciting around there.

4. Everything local was black and white, with one of those classic old film chains that consisted of two Bell and Howell projectors and a double slide carousel. The chains had this habit of deciding to toss a take-up belt every once in a while, and you'd have to stick a pencil in the take-up reel and turn it by hand between commercial breaks. We also had a pair of those screwball audio machines that were built around giant magnetic floppy discs. (RCA Audiomat comes to mind) The darn things never stayed in alignment, and you'd throw a disc in, hit the button, and get double voices.

5. To indicate what our financial situation was, we went off the air one night, and I called the transmitter operator who reported he'd had one of the detectors that monitored air circulation around the finals trip. Those things were little "wings" attached to a microswitch, and they'd frequently give up the ghost, so I told him to just bypass it and put us back on the air. Shortly after we returned to air, the GM, having noticed how quickly that happened, called and chewed me out. He pointed out that, with our revenue non-stream, we could be off for several days and it would still be cheaper than losing a final through overheating.

Fun days!

 

[JayElDee]

Oh, and...

Note the network news at 8pm, and the difference between KBLU's timing and ours. KBLU got their net feed from Phoenix, presumably on Mountain time, and we got ours from L.A. The times in the listing appear to be mountain time. At the end of day, we played back a pre-recorded local newscast, then signed-off by 11:30 Pacific Time.

 

[TexasTuner]

By an amazing coincidence, I was the technical director/operator at KIVA on the night of the listing you posted. To answer some of the specifics:

1. We did, in fact, get our net feeds by microwave. We had off-air receivers on Santiago Peak in Orange County that then hopped to El Centro. From there, we had a single channel microwave to the Yuma studio that went to Black Mountain, then back down to Yuma. It covered a lots of sandy area at a fairly low angle, so we had a lot of multi-path fading in the evenings during the summer. Even as late as September, I probably had a "please stand by" slide in the film chain. KIVA was a dual ABC-NBC affiliate. We accomplished switching the net signal by means of a UHF radio system that had an now-old-fashioned dial in the control room, and a receiver with probably a large stepping relay in El Centro. You'd hold down the transmit button, dial 7, the El Centro switcher would togle over to ABC, and away you'd go. One of our on-going challenges was that the two networks didn't use exactly the same timing for their show ends, so when going from one to the other we'd sometimes have more commercials on the log than the break permitted. I worked weekends once in a while at KYUM radio, which was a NBC station. We got the old Monitor program over there by ATT long lines.

2. The tower was in California, still using the original DuMont transmitter, but the studios were in Yuma. As indicated, we used California time. The primary reason we signed off at midnight was that money was tight, there wasn't much in the way of local advertising after 11, and they'd have had to pay me overtime to stay later.

3. Yeah, we were short on VTRs. We had Ampex 1000 serial number (I believe) 3. It was a machine that originally got fire-damaged at NBC. Running two VTR's in one break meant that I had to roll in something from the film chain, dash back to the VTR, change the tape, then run back to the console in time to roll it and cut to it. Things got pretty exciting around there.

4. Everything local was black and white, with one of those classic old film chains that consisted of two Bell and Howell projectors and a double slide carousel. The chains had this habit of deciding to toss a take-up belt every once in a while, and you'd have to stick a pencil in the take-up reel and turn it by hand between commercial breaks. We also had a pair of those screwball audio machines that were built around giant magnetic floppy discs. (RCA Audiomat comes to mind) The darn things never stayed in alignment, and you'd throw a disc in, hit the button, and get double voices.

5. To indicate what our financial situation was, we went off the air one night, and I called the transmitter operator who reported he'd had one of the detectors that monitored air circulation around the finals trip. Those things were little "wings" attached to a microswitch, and they'd frequently give up the ghost, so I told him to just bypass it and put us back on the air. Shortly after we returned to air, the GM, having noticed how quickly that happened, called and chewed me out. He pointed out that, with our revenue non-stream, we could be off for several days and it would still be cheaper than losing a final through overheating.

Fun days!

I can understand the NBC stuff being in color, but wasn't ABC also running most of its schedule in color by 1967? Seems that all of the ABC shows were run in monochrome. Microwave issues?

 

[oldiesfan6479]

...but wasn't ABC also running most of its schedule in color by 1967? Seems that all of the
ABC shows were run in monochrome. Microwave issues?

Could some of ABC daytime still have been B&W in late summer 1967?

The other reason would be if a prime time show was aired out-of-pattern
(not picked up off-air from KABC), it was from a 16mm film print shipped to
KIVA on an x-number of days or weeks delay, and their film chain was B&W.

Assuming The Fugitive at 5:30pm was the first-run series, this would have
been nearly a two-week delay and have been the episode aired on ABC
August 29 at 10/9 Central. Or more properly (cue narrator William Conrad)
"Tuesday August 29: the day the running stopped." And the day that
Lt. Gerard ceased to be the most hated man in America.

 

[TexasTuner]

...but wasn't ABC also running most of its schedule in color by 1967? Seems that all of the
ABC shows were run in monochrome. Microwave issues?

Could some of ABC daytime still have been B&W in late summer 1967?

The other reason would be if a prime time show was aired out-of-pattern
(not picked up off-air from KABC), it was from a 16mm film print shipped to
KIVA on an x-number of days or weeks delay, and their film chain was B&W.

Assuming The Fugitive at 5:30pm was the first-run series, this would have
been nearly a two-week delay and have been the episode aired on ABC

Still, if they took any ABC shows "live", then those would have been in color, I presume. I can see where if they had no ability to do local origination in color, and they were forced to either run film or tape then that explains it. But all of the ABC stuff being delayed? They must have had a hell of a deal with NBC, then.

 

[JayElDee]

The afternoon ABC stuff was off the microwave and I remember it being in color at some point before I left in spring of 68, so either the old Guide is wrong on that, or my memory is. We did have some ongoing issues with published program schedules not having correct info re: color. That Fugitive episode would have been on 16mm. We mixed 'em up. When we had a time conflict in "Prime Time" (such as that was down there) we usually resolved it by airing NBC live and taking the ABC show on film delay.

The interesting challenge was the SS KIVA show, which had cartoons, spots, live video, and audio. One of the spots was for a place called "Big Burger" whose jingle is still seared in my memory. The cotton picking thing had something like 15 slides in the spot and you had to change them by hand in time to the music. Lots of running around for a one-guy booth crew!

 

[oldiesfan6479]

When we had a time conflict in "Prime Time" (such as that was down there) we usually resolved it by airing NBC live and taking the ABC show on film delay.

Sorry, but saying "airing NBC live" while knowing just how the feed got to you
(KNBC-TV off-air pickup, et al) just doesn't seem right.

I guess stations in that type of situation always wait for the magic day when they
can finally control their own destiny, such as when (in 1977, IIRC) KOLD-TV Tucson
finally re-established its own Telco line from CBS, after years--since 1960 or so I
was told--of being tied to a microwave link from KOOL-TV Phoenix for CBS programs.
And worse, it was almost always a "dirty" KOOL master control feed, not a clean feed
of the network or net delay from their tape room.

BTW, during network movies or specials that crossed the TOH sans station break,
how did KIVA cover the lower-third KNBC or KABC ID?

The interesting challenge was the SS KIVA show, which had cartoons, spots, live video, and audio. One of the spots was for a place called "Big Burger" whose jingle is still seared in my memory. The cotton picking thing had something like 15 slides in the spot and you had to change them by hand in time to the music. Lots of running around for a one-guy booth crew!

Geez, did you have to direct the show too? Or "just" as TD or audio? From how you
described prime time chores, for S.S. KIVA you probably also had to load films, tapes
and re-rack the slides!